“We could also partner in monitoring the internet networks to search for banned information,” he said to the RBC business portal on Tuesday.

The Agora international human rights group estimated that Russian authorities blocked an average of almost 250 web pages a day in 2017. RosKomSvoboda, a nonprofit that monitors internet censorship, said there were over 100,000 blacklisted websites in Russia as of Wednesday.

Authorities have also increasingly handed out jail sentences on charges of extremism to ordinary Russians for social media activity ranging from sharing images to posting comments critical of the country’s leadership.

The Russian Supreme Court has for the past two years opposed the surge in extremism convictions, most of which are handed down on web and social media users.

The same court, however, ruled last month that the authorities can confiscate phones even without a criminal prosecution.